WSBR will be included in a segment of the CBS Sunday Morning show on Sunday December 27th, 2009. The segment features Dafna Michaelson and her 50 in 52 Journey. WSBR was one of her stops while in Oklahoma. Tune in next week to see the interview or don't forget to set your dvrs.

Posted by Todd Vinson at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The University of Oklahoma Baseball Team made its annual trip to the Willow Spring Boys' Ranch in Chandler, Okla., on Nov. 5.

The Sooners have been coming to the ranch since 2005 and have created a tradition of naming the team's captains for the upcoming season at the event. Seniors Jeremy Erben and Ross Hubbard and sophomore Garrett Buechele were voted as the 2010 captains by their teammates.

Click on the link above to read the rest of the article and see pictures and video of the day.

Posted by Todd Vinson at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It has been a few weeks since I have posted an entry. Not because there hasn't been anything going on. Life has been full at the ranch. We have had two boys graduate and move into the Nichols Graduate House. Three guys are now in the Nichols House. Miguel is in his second year in our grad program and continues to amaze us. Both of the new guys will be going to college: one to OSU and one to UCO. We are very proud of these guys. We have had these guys 7 and 8 years at the ranch.

Six of our older guys will be working at Deep Fork Tree Farm this summer. WSBR will have taken four new guys over a four week period. Two are twins from OKC, one from Tulsa, and one from southern Louisiana. We look forward to the opportunity of accepting new boys this summer/fall and sharing new success stories.

We are humbled by how people continue to help meet needs at the ranch. For example, here is what happened today:

Hiland Dairy donated dairy products to help feed our boys. Two men volunteered to come tomorrow to help us get caught up with all the mowing from the past rains. Friends helped outfit some of our new boys in clothes.

Also this past week donations have been made that help repair mowing equipment. Provisions came in to cover major repairs on one of our vans. Regardless of the economy, God continues to show up to meet the needs of the ranch.

I have been reminded of a phrase that my friend, Skip, shared with me as I see all the things that are needed at the ranch. Skip shared, "Is God worried?" The obvious answer is NO. I often am, but God is not. He is more that able to accomplish what concerns me today. And God uses amazing people, situations and circumstances to make that happen.

Thank you to all of you who help make Willow Springs Boys Ranch happen. Thank you for your prayers as well. Please pray for Camp Pharos that is coming up June 8th-12th. Jacob's Ladder is partnering with LIghthouse Ministries to love on 80 children of incarcerated parents. To use Joe Spear's phrase, "We will love them like Jesus" that week. If you are in the area, we would love for you to see Jacob's Ladder in action that week. Thanks again for all you do to help us serve others. Come see us this summer and see God's handiwork!

Posted by Todd Vinson at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't read Oswald Chambers everyday, but when I do, his devotional writings seem to speak directly to me. Today is no exception. It is a funny thing in life. You see the things that you look at. I challenge you to look at Jesus and discover what you will see.

THE GLORY THAT EXCELS

The Lord ... hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy
sight. Acts 9:17

When Paul received his sight, he received spiritually an insight into
the Person of Jesus Christ, and the whole of his subsequent life and
preaching was nothing but Jesus Christ - "I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." No
attraction was ever allowed to hold the mind and soul of Paul save
the face of Jesus Christ.

We have to learn to maintain an unimpaired state of character up to
the last notch revealed in the vision of Jesus Christ.

The abiding characteristic of a spiritual man is the interpretation
of the Lord Jesus Christ to himself, and the interpretation to others
of the purposes of God. The one concentrated passion of the life is
Jesus Christ. Whenever you meet this note in a man, you feel he is a
man after God's own heart.

Never allow anything to deflect you from insight into Jesus Christ.
It is the test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual
means that other things have a growing fascination for you.

"Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all beside,
So enchained my spirit's vision,
Gazing on the Crucified."

Posted by Todd Vinson at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In case you haven't heard the news lately, our country is in a bit of an economic crisis. Crisis sounds like a terrible word. However, a crisis is merely a life changing event. The economic crisis is changing how many of us live our lives. My friend, Marcia, sent me a great quote today from Andy Biddy. Andy left Bridgeway Church in OKC to start a church plant in NYC.

All change is not bad as noted by this quote below from Henri Nouwen.

"More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems.

My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress.

But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them--but truly love them."

~Henri Nouwen

Posted by Todd Vinson at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor. I am reading this book for my Joshua Men's group that I attend each month in Tulsa. Robert D. Lupton challenges many of the ways that people provide compassionate ministry. Here is a sample of some of his thought-provoking quotes:

"But good can sometimes become the enemy of best. When our one-way giving becomes comfortable and our spirits are no longer stirred to find the deeper, more costly solutions, good has become the enemy of best. When feeding programs value order and efficiency over the messiness of personal involvement, good has become the enemy of best. When recipients remain recipients and givers are content to remain givers, good has become the enemy of best.

Perhaps the best giving is the kind that enables the poor to know the blessedness of being givers."

Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking the Ministry to the Poor
~Robert D. Lupton

Posted by Todd Vinson at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I received this quote from a friend today. Though written years ago, it seem relevant to current events. We see the effects of this mentality day in and day out as we serve at the boys ranch. The frightening thing is that that way of thinking seems to now been embraced by not just a section of society, but now also our government. I would welcome your thoughts. Click the link at the bottom of today's blog to comment.

The Quote of the Day Is:
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
- Adrian Rogers
(1931-2005)
American pastor

Posted by Todd Vinson at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)